The Revealed (24 page)

Julia is watching me from the sidelines with Rory, and her gaze tells me everything I need to know. She intends for me to spar with this obviously well-trained boy.

Are they crazy?

“Lily, meet Skylar.” Julia beckons me forward.

They’re crazy.

Then something weird happens. The boy’s face suddenly turns a deep shade of red, in striking contrast to his dark hair. He straightens and sticks out his hand. “You have no idea what an honor it is to meet you.”

Now it’s my turn to blush. I shake his hand.

“Your father is my hero,” he continues. “While I was still in the colonies, I planned on joining the military and then working my way up to politics. I’ve watched everything your family’s ever done.”

Rory pats Skylar on the shoulder. “Calm down, cowboy.”

“Sorry,” Skylar shakes his head with a grin. “I promised Julia I wouldn’t freak out but meeting you is just … you have to understand, your family is like, the hope for our future.”

“Not my family,” I try to shrug off my extreme embarrassment, “just my dad.”

“Okay,” Julia cuts in, and I’m grateful. “Let’s get to it, shall we? Skylar’s only been here for about eight months now, but he’s already the best we have at hand-to-hand combat. You’re going to try and pin him on the mats.”

I cringe. I look back and forth from Julia to Rory. Julia’s gaze is steadfast, and Rory’s seems to say,
No, she’s really not kidding.

Rory backs away from the mat, signaling that my training is to begin.

I suddenly miss that damn orb.

“I’ll go easy,” Skylar promises.

I step onto the blue cushions that really don’t feel like they’d soften a fall all that much. There’s no way I’m going to be able to summon my abilities quickly enough to use them defensively. Flipping through my memories, I try to come up with a series of self-defense moves Elias taught me. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be gentle.

Rory stands against the wall to observe. Julia puts her hand up between us so she can cue when we should start. Skylar situates himself across from me.

“Don’t hold back.” Julia eyes me. “Go!” She drops her hand and steps back.

Skylar leaps into action. He grips my shoulders, trying to pull me to the ground. This pairing doesn’t exactly seem fair. I guess Julia knows that.

As Skylar jerks my body to the left, I grab his wrists and we topple over one another.

Immediately, he’s back on his feet. A mischievous grin spreads across his lips.

He comes at me again.

I catch him just before he strikes me. His hand covers mine and instantly becomes so hot that it burns my flesh, and I yelp. Skylar takes advantage of my surprise and flips me onto the mat, knocking the air out of my lungs.

After heaving for a few seconds, I look over at Julia from the ground. “Can he
do
that?”

“Do what?” she asks innocently.

“Burn me like that!” I hold up my arm and show her the small welts rising across my forearm.

“Of course,” Julia shrugs. “You’re a member of The Revealed now. Your survival hinges on your ability to use the resources at your disposal.”

“But I can’t control them like he can yet,” I argue.

She smirks. “Why do you think we’re doing this? What better way to learn? This will catch you off guard. Haven’t you realized that when your emotions—fear, stress, excitement—are built up, your abilities unconsciously emerge. That’s what we’re trying to replicate today so you can recognize it and control it.”

I sigh and splay my arms out across the mat.

“Again,” Julia claps me to attention.

Skylar helps me up and mumbles a quick apology before returning to his stance across from me, fists at the ready.

“Go!” Julia shouts.

This time there isn’t even a small chance for me to respond. Skylar takes hold of my arm, twists it behind my back, kicks up a wind under my feet, and yanks me to the ground.

I groan. “I didn’t even have the time to raise my hand!”

“But you had time to think,” Julia points out. “Use your mind. Again.”

Skylar helps me up once more, and I shake out my muscles, which are already starting to cramp up. “Get angry,” he suggests. “It helps. Know what you want and pin me.”

I think of Westerfield. Roderick Westerfield makes me angry. That kind of evil is beyond my understanding. Knowing that someone wants to harm my family pushes me to the edge, and I want him dead. I’ve never felt that kind of hatred for another human being, but it comes easily when I think of him. I don’t want to just stop him from hurting my family, I want to stop him from doing anything ever again. I want to see him rot away in a small cell until that smug grin he wears fades to skin and bone.

“Go!” Julia calls.

I reach out and grab Skylar’s arm, trying to copy his technique. My fingertips smoke slightly with my efforts. Still, he doesn’t seem affected by my touch at all. Instead, his hand closes over my grip, and ice begins to smother my heat. Then he flips me to the ground, laying a hand on my chest to pin me.

“This is impossible,” I yell.

“Again,” Julia orders.

And on and on it goes. Each time Skylar pins me, until finally my whole body feels bruised. I don’t even want to stand up again. The last few times Skylar spars with me, I’m so exhausted I can barely put up a fight. I just let him barrel over me.

“We’ll pick up on this again tomorrow,” Julia says finally. “I recommend you get some water and food, Lily.”

“Tomorrow?” I whine. I don’t move from the mat, where I’m sprawled after the latest tackle. If it weren’t for my family, I’d be so over this.

“It was really nice to meet you, Lily.” Skylar sprints to my side and looks down at me, offering me his hand for the last time today. “Hopefully I’ll see you around.”

“And hopefully it won’t end with me on the floor again,” I say. I take one more long breath before accepting his hand and standing shakily, trying to ignore the bruises.

“Ya never know!” Rory sings, snorting at her own joke as we walk away.

“Please.” I roll my eyes.

“Come on!” she teases. “You can’t deny that Skylar’s hot—
totally
hot!” She glances back over her shoulder as we leave the gym. “And he’s already in love with you.”

“He seemed more in love with my dad. Plus, I like Kai.”

“For now—”

I hold up my hand. “Stop.” I don’t want to hear it. After everything I’ve been through with Kai, there is no one else I can even imagine being with. I don’t want anyone else.

My mind wanders back to the email I sent this morning. Will he have read it by now and responded? My body almost physically twitches with the desire to get back to the room so I can look, but Rory has other plans.

“Come on,” Rory takes my hand, “there’s something I want to show you.”

The dining hall is at the center of The Revealed’s headquarters, the hub to its four corridors, each of which are clearly marked as it’s hard to remain oriented underwater. Designated living quarters are in the west wing. Research facilities and surgical centers occupy the east wing, which requires approval to access. In the south are the gyms and classrooms. The north holds the greenhouses and tools used to grow food and sustain plant life.

Rory tells me that The Revealed tries to grow as much of the food as possible at headquarters. This avoids the need to plan dangerous missions to grocery stores in the colonies. Of course, some things can’t be produced underwater or are too prohibitively expensive to farm; for example, meat and dairy must be sent for. But with the abilities The Revealed have, growing grains and vegetables aren’t difficult.

She leads me down the hall of the south wing, where all of the classrooms and a few more training gyms are housed.

“Please don’t make me go to another gym,” I plead.

Thankfully, she rounds the corner.

“Stop being such a baby,” she laughs. “And, no, I’m not taking you to the gym. There’s still something you haven’t seen.”

At the very end of the hall are two large doors that stretch all the way up to the ceiling. Rory opens them both, swinging out her arms and unveiling what’s inside.

My breath catches in my chest.

It’s like walking into another world. There are trees stretching to the ceiling, which must be thirty feet tall. Rows and rows of small saplings fill the room. Bushes rise along the walls. Vines twist around the beams that support the middle of the football field-sized room. Flowers of all shapes and colors decorate the landscape. It’s a greenhouse, though I’ve never seen a greenhouse like this. Maybe the biosphere came the closest. But from the pictures I’ve seen of that experiment, this is the biosphere times a hundred.

The warmth and humidity hits me as we walk inside under a large sunlamp overhead. All of it is simply spectacular.

Rory kicks off her shoes and walks into the dirt, carefully avoiding any plants.

There’s the thick, heady smell of soil mingled with the humid warmth of the room. The walls are covered in white, vinyl-looking material, but warm light seeps through. It can’t be possible. We are underwater. Yet the rows and rows of plants stretch before me like a field.

I continue to gaze all around and up at the ceiling.

“This is my favorite place,” Rory says as she goes to the side of the room and grabs a handful of seeds from a bucket on the shelf. She slips them into her pocket. “You can take as many as you’d like.”

“It’s amazing.” I’m so awed by the room I’m hardly paying attention to her words.

She heads to a small, empty spot on the soil, getting on her hands and knees and pressing a few seeds into the dirt. She waves her hand over the area and soon, small sprouts pop up, uncurling from the surface.

I bend down next to her, watching the small plants reach for the light. Little leaves pop open before Rory drops her hand.

“How is this possible?” I stare in wonder at the plant Rory has just created.

In answer, she pokes a finger to my forehead.

“Can you teach me?” I ask, heading for the seeds on the shelf. I put a handful in my pocket. I pinch a few seeds between my fingers and walk back to the clearing, crouching and pressing them into the dirt. I mimic Rory’s style and hover my hand over what I planted, willing them to grow.

Before long, a tiny seedling pokes through the dirt. Elation fills me. I’ve created something real and tangible just by desiring it. Rory bends next to me and places her palm over mine. With our combined efforts, the small plant springs to life and twists rapidly out around the dirt. It matures so quickly that soon I have to jump out of the way.

Rory stands and proudly observes our work. She drops another seed in my hand, encouraging me to coax it too to life. It’s a fun game, and I continue to practice, wanting to be as skilled as Rory.

“Come here,” she beckons me over after a few minutes, and I join her in the center. On either side of us are rows and rows of young plants. “Look.”

She levels her hands between one of the rows, palms up, and I can see her eyes narrow in focus. She builds the electricity inside herself before unleashing it around the room. The plants shudder in her wake, coming alive as they dance with Rory’s abilities. She raises her hands slightly and the plants shoot from the earth, growing taller. Rory’s eyes practically glow.

I reach out and grab her wrist.

Her focus is broken. I stare around the greenhouse as the plants crumple and fold back into their original positions.

“How did you learn to do that?” I ask, astonished.

She shrugs. “I’ve been practicing. In fact, I used to practice in the gardens of your house during my breaks. Impressed?”

“Impressed? Rory, can all members of The Revealed do this?”

She shakes her head, suddenly coy.

“It’s amazing, really.”

Rory beams at my compliment. “Yeah, well, I may not have been the best at cooking but
this
? This I can do.”

That evening, my first move is to open my email, of course. But there are only a few junk messages and news alerts on the election. It was announced that my parents cancelled the rest of the tour and flew home, but no one is talking about my disappearance yet. It won’t be much longer now, I know.

Much to my dismay, I haven’t received a reply from Kai. He may be somewhat of a techie, but I know he isn’t the type of guy to live in front of his computer. I reconcile with the twinge of disappointment. It’s only been a few short hours really.

After my sweep of the Internet, I clear the guest suite of my few possessions—basically just the clothes I was wearing the night I was attacked and my ID card—and move in the dorm room with Rory. She’s at her computer, facing me, when I walk in the room. I beam at her, dropping my clothes on the floor to prove I’m making myself at home, then collapse face first onto the bed.

My brain hurts from all the training. Plus, I just want to go to bed so that I won’t look at my email again. Maybe by the time I wake up, I’ll have an email from Kai.

“Welcome home,” I say to myself with a smile as I smash my face into the pillow, ready to sleep.

“Lily, someone’s here to see—”

I interrupt with a loud yawn. “I don’t think I can move, let alone see anyone else today.”